This invention relates to inventory monitoring and dispensing devices and systems. Particularly this invention relates to apparatus for dispensing and tracking an inventory of medical items used to treat patients in a hospital, clinic or other healthcare setting.
The treatment of patients in hospitals and clinics usually involves the receipt by the patient of medical items. These items may include consumable items such as medications. Medical treatment may also involve other disposable items such as dressings and bandages or other medical equipment. Items implanted into the patient or used in conjunction with surgical procedures may also be used and consumed during the course of a patient""s medical treatment. Examples of such items include splints, catheters or guide wires which are normally used during cardiac catheterization or angioplasty. To serve the needs of its patients, a clinic or hospital must always maintain sufficient stocks of these items on hand. Further, as medical items are often expensive, the charges associated with their use must be accurately billed to the patient.
Currently most systems for tracking inventory and use of medical equipment items in a hospital or clinic environment are manual systems. The persons responsible for maintaining an inventory of particular items must monitor the use of the items in each storage location within the hospital and order additional supplies when it is noted that the available stocks are running low. Often personnel are only familiar with the stocks available in a particular storage location and as a result, additional stocks may be ordered even though ample supplies are available elsewhere in the same facility.
Certain drugs used in the course of medical treatment are regulated narcotics. Supplies of such drugs must be kept in secure cabinets. Items may be dispensed from the secure cabinets only by two (2) authorized users accessing the material and certifying the manner in which it is used. The use of such narcotics also may require considerable paperwork which takes away valuable time that could be used for treating patients.
The recording of medical items so that the patient may be billed for their use in the course of treatment is also largely a manual operation. The fact of use by the patient must be recorded in the patient""s chart for later billing. In some cases items have peel-off labels that include a bar code that can be scanned and used for billing purposes. However, this still requires that the nurse or medical technician transfer the correct coding to the proper location for later billing.
Complications in billing become even greater when items are removed from inventory to accomplish a planned surgical procedure and then the items are not used. A patient may be charged for use of a particular item which is removed from inventory in anticipation of surgery. If during the surgery the item is not needed, a corresponding credit must be issued when the item is returned to stock. All of these activities take time away from persons who could otherwise devote their time to the treatment of patients. Such tracking and billing practices are also prone to inaccuracies which may cause the hospital or clinic to lose money or which may result in overbilling of the patient.
Thus there exists a need for an apparatus and system for monitoring and dispensing medical items in hospital or clinic environments that can more accurately monitor inventories, dispense medical items and correlate the use of medical items with the patient whose treatment has included their use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring an inventory of medical use items to provide an indication of what items have been used.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring the use of medical use items so that supplies may be replenished before depletion.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring an inventory of medical use items that monitors a plurality of items in real time.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring an inventory of medical use items that requires the processing of no paper forms.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and dispensing medical use items that indicates the patient whose treatment has involved the medical use items.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and dispensing medical use items that can be used to indicate the technician or physician who has used such medical use items.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and dispensing medical use items that provides for crediting of a patient""s account upon return of an unused item to inventory.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and dispensing medical use items that is used to store and dispense restricted items in a secure manner.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and dispensing medical use items that can guide a user to select the items that will be used in a particular medical procedure.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and dispensing medical use items that may be used to track and dispense a wide variety of various items and to record their use in a clinical or hospital environment.
Further objects of the present invention will be made apparent in the following Best Modes for Carrying Out Invention and the appended claims.
The foregoing objects are accomplished in a preferred embodiment of the invention by a system for monitoring and dispensing medical items in a clinical or hospital environment. This system includes a plurality of item storage locations. A particular type of medical item may be stored in each location. For example, one type of medical item may include a particular type of catheter. Another may be a particular type of medication packaged in a particular dosage. Each location in the system includes at least one unit of the particular type of medical item.
A sensor is positioned adjacent to each location. A sensor is particularly adapted to sense the addition or subtraction of a unit of the particular type of medical item that is stored in the location. As a result, each time a unit of the particular item is added or removed from storage in the location, the sensor senses this and generates a signal.
A counter is connected to each sensor and records the number of units added or removed from each location. The counter holds a count of the change in the number of units at the location since the last time the counter was read.
The counters associated with each location are connected to at least one processor and at least one memory or data store. The data store includes a total of the number of items that are located in storage at the location. Periodically, the processor polls each of the counters and reads the change in the number of units stored therein. Thereafter the processor is operative to update the total number stored in the memory to reflect the number of items currently stored at the location.
Embodiments of the invention include a data terminal which includes a user interface and which terminal is connected to the processing system and the counters. The data store includes records concerning patients, procedures, authorized users of the system and each of the products stored in each of the locations, including pricing information. The user, such as a technician or nurse, uses the interface of the data terminal to identify the particular patient who is to receive the medical items taken by the user. Upon removal of the items from the storage locations, the use of such items is recorded in the patient record in the data store so that the patient""s chart may be automatically updated and the item charged. In addition, a user using the data terminal may review information in the data store concerning procedures and physicians to determine what medical items are required by a physician to conduct a procedure and may remove such items for delivery to an operating room.
In other embodiments, controlled substances such as narcotics, may be dispensed using the system from a dispenser mechanism or an electronic lock drawer. In such embodiments, the user is required to identify himself at the display terminal. This information is processed and compared to authorized user records in the data store to verify that the user is an authorized user. In some embodiments the identifying information on the user may be placed on an encoded object such as a card and the user may be assigned a personal identification number (PIN) that is memorized by the user. The data terminal includes a reader for reading the coded object and for receiving the user""s PIN number which has a predetermined relationship to the data on the encoded object. The proper input of the PIN with the corresponding user""s coded object verifies that a proper user is requesting to gain access to the items. For some strictly controlled substances two (2) authorized users may be required to input their coded objects and PIN numbers in order to gain access to the controlled items.
As with the previously described embodiment, once the authorized user has provided the necessary identification, the processor operates to cause the desired substance to be dispensed or made accessible to the user. The user is also required to input the corresponding patient data so that the patient""s chart and billing may be updated.
In some embodiments of the invention, the system may interface with other computer systems such as the admission-discharge-transfer (ADT) computer system that the hospital uses to track patients. This is a computer system which is used in a hospital or clinic to track patient location and activity. In addition, the system of the present invention may also be connected to the hospital information system (HIS) which is the record storage facility of the hospital which maintains computerized records concerning patients. As a result, patient activity, record keeping, and billing may be automated through the system of the present invention, along with inventory monitoring. The system of the present invention may also be used to produce a wide variety of reports from the data store related to patients, authorized users, physicians and various types of items used in inventory. Such a system may also be integrated with an automatic ordering system so as to transfer supplies from one location to another where they are needed and/or to automatically place orders for additional supplies with vendors when supply levels reach a limit.